Huw Edwards’s conduct was reportedly being examined by BBC News journalists including Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire, before The Sun’s claims.
On Wednesday, Edwards, 61, was revealed to be the suspended presenter at the centre of allegations, after it was claimed an unnamed BBC star paid a young person more than £35,000 for sexually explicit images.
After several other claims, the Met police confirmed there is no evidence of a crime being committed, and Edwards’s wife shortly afterwards released a statement on his behalf.
Follow the latest news on the BBC presenter scandal on Metro.co.uk’s live blog.
In her statement, Vicky Flind said that her husband was ‘suffering from serious mental health issues’ and ‘is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he’ll stay for the foreseeable future’.
Following the announcement, BBC boss Tim Davie claimed an investigation at the BBC would ‘continue’.
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However, it has now been revealed that BBC News journalists were reportedly working on a potential exposé about the presenter before The Sun’s allegations.
Sources told Deadline that Derbyshire was ‘examining accusations about Edwards’s conduct in the days before The Sun made explosive claims’.
The publication notes that it is ‘not clear’ whether senior editors at BBC News were aware of Derbyshire’s work, which is said to have ‘raised eyebrows among some BBC staff.’
It is claimed by two sources that Derbyshire had been looking into Edwards’s conduct for ‘a while’, yet another source said she had one conversation with an individual but there was no evidence of Edwards’s wrongdoing.
Newsnight broadcast its findings on Wednesday night, after Flind’s statement.
The programme reported that Edwards allegedly sent ‘inappropriate’ and ‘suggestive’ messages to junior BBC employees, but were not deemed to be criminal.
BBC boss Tim Davie addressed the ‘challenging few days’ leading up to the announcement on Wednesday, and said, in a letter to staff, that he wanted to write to them ‘following this evening’s statements from the family of Huw Edwards and the police’.
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He said: ‘This afternoon, the Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police confirmed they would be taking no further action following an assessment of information provided to them.’
Davie continued: ‘As you know, we were asked to pause our fact finding investigations until that assessment had been concluded. It is important we now continue with this work. I want to be clear that in doing so we will follow due process.
‘This remains a very complex set of circumstances. As we have done throughout, our aim must be to navigate through this with care and consideration, in line with the BBC values.’
This follows reports that the BBC was first approached by the family of the young person on May 19, while the broadcaster reported that the parents reached out to the police a month prior.
The BBC then claimed it was aware of new allegations against the then-unnamed male presenter on July 6, before The Sun published its exclusive the following day.
Metro.co.uk has approached BBC and Victoria Derbyshire’s reps for comment.
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